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    Climate and the Republican Convention

    Here’s where the party stands on global warming, energy and the environment.It’s official: Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for the presidential election this November, and Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio is his running mate.The long-awaited announcement of the vice-presidential candidate came as the Republican National Convention opened in Milwaukee on Monday and Trump made his first public appearance since the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.Climate change was not on the agenda. But the convention’s first day, which was focused on the economy, offered fresh signs of what a new Trump presidency might look like in terms of climate policy.Today, I want to share with you some of the reporting my colleague Lisa Friedman has been doing on the Republican ticket and what to expect when it comes to climate and the environment. Lisa has covered environmental policy from Washington for more than a decade.For Republican leaders, it’s all about energyJune was the Earth’s 13th consecutive month to break a global heat record and more than a third of Americans are facing dangerous levels of heat. But climate change is unlikely to be a major theme at the Republican convention, which runs through Thursday. It was not mentioned in any of the main speeches on Monday, which instead focused on inflation and the economy.(The closest thing to a mention of global warming Monday night came from Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who derided what she called the “Green New Scam,” saying it was destroying small business.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Schiff Warned of Wipeout for Democrats if Biden Remains in Race

    Representative Adam B. Schiff of California told attendees at a Democratic fund-raiser that the party would lose the Senate and miss a chance to take the House if the president did not drop out.Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is running for Senate, warned during a private meeting with donors on Saturday that his party was likely to suffer overwhelming losses in November if President Biden remained at the top of the ticket, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Schiff’s remarks at the meeting.If Mr. Biden remained, not only would he lose to former President Donald J. Trump, he could be enough of a drag on other Democratic candidates that the party would most likely lose the Senate and miss an opportunity to win control of the House, Mr. Schiff said at a fund-raiser in New York.“I think if he is our nominee, I think we lose,” Mr. Schiff said during the meeting, according to a person with access to a transcription of a recording of the event. “And we may very, very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House.”Mr. Schiff’s remarks underscore the depth of the concerns in the president’s party about the prospects for downballot Democrats if Mr. Biden remains in the race, even if most senior Democrats are still unwilling to express such dire warnings in public.The event was held in East Hampton, N.Y., shortly before Mr. Trump was shot on Saturday. Public calls from Democrats for Mr. Biden to step aside as a candidate have dropped off since the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life, providing Mr. Biden, who is insisting the he will remain in the race, an opportunity to overcome the dissent.In an effort to end the internal battle, leaders of the Democratic National Committee are moving to formally nominate Mr. Biden as the party’s candidate by the end of the month, weeks before their convention in Chicago in August.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Un tiroteo conmociona una campaña en EE. UU., ya de por sí accidentada

    El atentado contra Donald J. Trump fue la última escalada de violencia política y un recordatorio de la creciente fragilidad de la democracia pacífica en Estados Unidos.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El intento de asesinato contra Donald Trump del sábado en su mitin en Pensilvania sumió la contienda presidencial de 2024 en un estado de conmoción e incertidumbre.La campaña del presidente Joe Biden se apresuró a retirar sus anuncios de televisión de los medios de todo el país e interrumpió todas las comunicaciones oficiales externas. No habría ningún llamado a recaudar fondos ni comunicados de prensa. Una orden interna de la campaña de Biden pedía a todos los miembros de su personal que “se abstuvieran de hacer comentarios en las redes sociales o en público”, lo mismo dictó un lineamiento interno de la campaña de Trump.Biden, quien estaba la iglesia en el momento del atentado, condenó la violencia como “enfermiza” en un breve discurso a la nación desde un departamento de policía local en Delaware, luego cambió de planes y regresó a la Casa Blanca después de la medianoche. Él y Trump hablaron el sábado a última hora, una llamada que un funcionario de la Casa Blanca describió como “buena, respetuosa y breve”.Trump emitió su propio relato gráfico del momento difícil en una publicación en sus cuentas de redes sociales mientras regresaba a Nueva Jersey antes de la Convención Nacional Republicana que, según las autoridades, continuará como estaba previsto el lunes en Milwaukee: “Oí un zumbido, disparos e inmediatamente sentí la bala desgarrándome la piel”.“¡Nunca me Rendiré!”, escribió Trump en un mensaje de texto a sus seguidores.Sus dos principales asesores, Susie Wiles y Chris LaCivita, escribieron en un mensaje público la noche del sábado que Trump no dejaría de asistir a la convención para reunirse con sus partidarios. Y en un mensaje interno al personal de la campaña de Trump, escribieron que estaban “reforzando la presencia de seguridad armada con oficiales en todo momento en el lugar” tanto en Washington como en West Palm Beach, Florida, en las oficinas de campaña.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    In J.D. Vance, Donald Trump Selects an Inheritor

    For nearly nine years, Donald J. Trump has been the singular face of Republican politics and the undisputed leader of the Make America Great Again movement. On Monday, the former president came as close as he may ever come to anointing a successor.The choice of J.D. Vance as Mr. Trump’s running mate, a politician nearly 40 years his junior, immediately vaults the first-term senator to the forefront of a G.O.P. future that is not so far away.If elected in November, Mr. Trump, 78, can serve only a single term — the 22nd Amendment states that no person shall be elected president more than twice — a rarity for a candidate naming a potential vice president. That short tenure has added extra urgency to the question of what comes next for Trumpism, a movement inextricably tethered to one man who has so thoroughly transformed the Republican Party.Mr. Vance, 39, is the first millennial to make a major presidential ticket, a Marine veteran and a politician who has thoroughly remade himself as a full-throated MAGA enthusiast. In recent months, it was Mr. Vance’s aggressive defense of Trumpism and Mr. Trump, even on mainstream news outlets, that helped him stand out for the former president as a worthy inheritor.“Trump is going to hold on to the MAGA baton for as long as he can,” said Chip Saltsman, a longtime Republican strategist. But Mr. Vance, he added, is “somebody that’s going to have an inside track, a head start on getting the MAGA baton in four years.”The changing of the ideological guard was clearly, and at times uncomfortably, apparent on the convention floor on Monday. Mentions of Mr. Vance’s name earned roars of approval. The face of Senator Mitch McConnell, an avatar of the pre-Trump G.O.P., inspired boos when he appeared on the big screens above delegates.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Elon Musk Allies Help Start Pro-Trump Super PAC

    Some of Elon Musk’s closest friends have helped start a new super PAC meant to help former President Donald J. Trump, creating an avenue for Mr. Musk and his $250 billion fortune to potentially play a significant role in the 2024 presidential race.The group, America PAC, is likely to draw significant support from Mr. Musk, according to three people close to the group who spoke on the condition of anonymity; it is not confirmed whether he has already donated. The group’s founding donors span Mr. Musk’s social circle and include a tight-knit network of wealthy tech entrepreneurs who frequently finance one another’s startups, philanthropic projects and favored political candidates.Mr. Musk had not donated to the super PAC as of June 30, the end of the most recent disclosure period, according to a Monday filing with the Federal Election Commission. But his tilt to the right, especially in his commentary on his social media site X, has left Republicans hoping he will wade more into funding conservative candidates and causes. On Saturday, soon after Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt, Mr. Musk went on X to issue a full-throated endorsement of the former president.The super PAC, according to three people close to the organization, is led in part by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of the software company Palantir and a politically ambitious venture capitalist in Austin who serves as a political confidant to Mr. Musk. Mr. Lonsdale, the people say, has played a key role in fund-raising for the group in its opening weeks, encouraging his network of influential entrepreneurs to support the super PAC. His personal company donated $1 million to the group.The top early donors to America PAC include several powerful conservatives from the tech industry. Contributions include $1 million from Antonio Gracias, a private-equity mogul and a board director at SpaceX; $1 million from Ken Howery, an early executive at PayPal alongside Mr. Musk who served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Sweden; and $500,000 from Shaun Maguire, an investor at Sequoia Capital who is close to Mr. Musk.The group has released few details about its operations and its strategy, other than that it has been running field and digital programs on behalf of the former president, mostly encouraging early and mail-in voting. People close to it say that a key operative is Dave Rexrode, a top political operative who most recently has served as a key ally to Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia. Mr. Rexrode did not respond to requests for comment in recent days.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Biden Had a Clear Message: Trump Was a Threat. Then the Shooting Happened.

    Former President Donald J. Trump has gone from being an instigator of political violence to a victim of it. The assassination attempt raised questions about how far language should go in a heated campaign.For months, the message from the White House and Wilmington was as stark as it was simple: This year’s election amounts to an existential choice between a defender of democracy and a destroyer of democracy. Nothing less than the future of America is at stake.And then the bullets started flying.The assassination attempt over the weekend has complicated President Biden’s argument now that former President Donald J. Trump has gone from being a longtime instigator of political violence to a victim of it. Republicans, including Mr. Trump’s newly anointed running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, instantly blamed Mr. Biden, citing his sharp rhetoric.No one in Mr. Biden’s camp thinks that is a good-faith argument, especially from allies of a former president who sent the mob that marauded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and did nothing to stop its assault, and has now vowed to pardon rioters convicted of violent crimes. But the images of Mr. Trump with blood streaked across his face after being grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet raise the question of how far language should go in a heated campaign.Mr. Biden, who has long preached unity and civility, conceded on Monday that it was “a mistake” to tell supporters a week ago that he wanted to “put Trump in a bull’s-eye,” an expression that was certainly metaphorical but opened the president to criticism after his opponent found himself in literal cross hairs. At the same time, Mr. Biden and his team have made clear that they will not back off efforts to demonstrate that Mr. Trump is a budding dictator who is dangerous to the country.“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says?” Mr. Biden asked Lester Holt of NBC News on Monday during his first interview since the assassination attempt. “Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody? Look, I’m not engaged in that rhetoric. Now, my opponent is engaged in that rhetoric.”Mr. Biden responded to the shooting in Butler, Pa., on Saturday by calling Mr. Trump to express relief that he was not more seriously wounded and urging Americans to “lower the temperature” this campaign season. His campaign suspended television ads and its regular barrage of attack emails.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Republicans Place Shooting in Trump’s Narrative of Persecution

    For Donald J. Trump’s most ardent supporters, the assassination attempt on Saturday was the climax and confirmation of a story that Mr. Trump has been telling for years.It is the story of a fearless leader surrounded by shadowy forces and intrigue, of grand conspiracies to thwart the will of the people who elected him. A narrative in which Mr. Trump, even before a gunman tried to take his life, was already a martyr.“They’re not coming after me,” he declared at the first rally of his 2024 campaign, last year in Waco, Texas. “They’re coming after you — and I’m just standing in their way.”In the hours after the shooting — before the gunman’s name, much less a motive, was known — many Republican politicians and Trump supporters blamed Democrats and the news media. They pointed to portrayals of Mr. Trump as an authoritarian and anti-democratic force in politics, which they argued created a climate that made an attempt on his life inevitable.“Dems and their friends in the media knew exactly what they were doing” in comparing Mr. Trump to Hitler, Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Sunday in one of several accusatory posts on X about his father’s shooting.Others pointed to President Biden’s remarks on a call with donors last week in which he said, “It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.” Citing the speech, Mike Collins, a Republican congressman from Georgia, wrote on X: “Joe Biden sent the orders.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More